I was wondering if you have any recommendations for an alternative software to Lightroom.

I have been using Lightroom for 5 years now but find it more and more clunky. Usually I edit my photos right after I shoot, and more often than not I have 1000 + images to go through, rate, and then edit.

So what I am looking for is something with rating / sorting / edit / batch export capabilities.

I came across Corel Aftershot Pro 3 and think will download the free trial. Does anyone use it?

Hi T - Yes I downloaded it couple of weeks ago. Originally worked fine, just right for the straightforward jobs I want to do. However having spent an hour or two doing some Rating stuff, next time I opened up I had seemed to have lost the File. Actually it still exists, but apart from the first pic, I can't get it to reopen the whole (Rated) File. I must have pressed a wrong button somewhere. Having said that it does feel like a straightforward program. For Free it's worth a try. Could you PM me with your thoughts?

I have been round the same loop as Telinhas and become increasingly unhappy with Lightroom. The whole import business is terribly slow and clunky and you are dependent on a huge proprietary database which contains absolutely everything. It's never going to work with Pro Capture on the EM1 MkII! You would spend hours or days importing before you cull images.

There doesn't seem to be another all-in-one solution which has both decent editing and cataloguing (and Adobe's raw processing isn't always the best).

I'm looking at a completely different workflow.

Stage 1: Images are transferred from SD card to an Import folder using Olympus Viewer 3. It does this pretty well and knows what has already been copied over. It can also create folders by date which I like. Not very fast but quicker than Lightroom

Stage 2: Images in the Import folder are culled using FastRawViewer (http://www.fastrawviewer.com/). This has all the tools you need to inspect and cull images very quickly and will show you the real histograms of raw images - it works with JPEGS too. It's cheap and well documented (about £15, free trial available). If you are in a hurry, you can send images straight to your editor of choice. Images can be colour coded and starred via sidecar XMP files and Photo Supreme picks this up in the next stage.

Stage 3: After culling, move images / folders to the main storage folder, and catalogue using Photo Supreme or similar product. Gives you all the keywording and searching facilities you could want. Cost is about £100 so not cheap but again a free trial is available. There are a number of similar applications but this seems to work for me. It's also open architecture so you are not locked into it.

Stage 4: Process images using Affinity Photo - I bought it for £30, now gone back to £40 :-( Obviously not all images which survived so far will be processed immediately. Processed images go to an Export folder together with associated .afphoto files which allow you to re-edit the image, going right back to the raw processing stages if you want. This is also indexed by Photo Supreme and all associated files can be linked together. Obviously you can use any raw processor or editor you prefer.

This is still being worked on but I think it's the way to go, for me at least. Stage 1 is the weakest part and needs some more work but is OK for now.

AfterShot Pro (ASP) isn't bad per se - the problem is Corel who now own it. It started off life as Bible and I used for several years. However, the original Bible team were slow to get version 5 completed and they eventually sold out to Corel who have neglected it severely - almost making it "shelfware". They fired the original Texas-based team and took it in-house in Canada and lost lots of expertise along the way. These days they are at least releasing updates, but they are infrequent and you end up waiting a long time for new raw-file support. It's also outclassed in features and results by LR and others.

Personally, I still think that LR is about the best, all things considered. You need top-class hardware to get the best out of it including lots of RAM, a SSD for the catalogue files and a decent-spec CPU. I think the nearest alternative is probably Capture One. I have a friend who uses it and likes it a lot.

I'm a Capture One (Pro 10) user (as others here are also), but don't use it for importing or batch file processing, however that is all possible with it though. It is possible to download a free trial.

I agree LR is excellent. I use it with 7200rpm disks rather than SSD and don't really have any performance issues that bother me.

There's a rivalry between LR and CO that seems a bit like the old Windows/Linux wars... seems to me they're both good and it comes down to personal preference. Martin Evening did a comparison between them that purports to dismiss the claim that CO renders better than LR. Here's a link:

I agree LR is excellent. I use it with 7200rpm disks rather than SSD and don't really have any performance issues that bother me.

There's a rivalry between LR and CO that seems a bit like the old Windows/Linux wars... seems to me they're both good and it comes down to personal preference. Martin Evening did a comparison between them that purports to dismiss the claim that CO renders better than LR. Here's a link:

Have had a play with this - I rather like it. Thanks Graham.
So far the only downside I can see is that all that slider stuff is not immediately available on screen and you have to click each individual tool (Unless there is a workround on that Graham?) But I like the familiar interface.
(Will add it to the numerous bits of software I have downloaded, trying to find the 'ultimate one for me').

Have had a play with this - I rather like it. Thanks Graham.
So far the only downside I can see is that all that slider stuff is not immediately available on screen and you have to click each individual tool (Unless there is a workround on that Graham?) But I like the familiar interface.
(Will add it to the numerous bits of software I have downloaded, trying to find the 'ultimate one for me').

Update: Graham, keep finding good things (for me), about faststone. eg, so easy to move or copy stuff from the open file to another, and that you can keep available a whole load of such 'subsidiary' files to come back to.

Also if you delete a pic from a folder - it's deleted (after suitable questioning), rather than hanging about until the whole folder is closed/opened.

Only frustration so far is getting no answer to an email question. I will get the Manual pdf converted to hard copy (there are some great deals around), but have asked them if there is an update to the 'current' one which is 5 years out of date. no reply.